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E-Governance & Government Online in Canada:
Partnerships, People & Prospects
Barbara Ann Allen, Luc Juillet, Gilles Paquet, Jeffrey Roy
Centre on Governance
University of Ottawa
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1) Introduction
The objective of this paper is to examine the capacity of the Canadian federal
government to effectively harness information technology (IT)
as an enabling force in its
efforts to meet the present and emerging challenges of a digital age. Such challenges are
fundamentally rooted in the extraordinary expansion of e-commerce, the rise of e-
communities, the growth of virtual organizations and the development of a truly
commutative revolution that carries the potential for new network based capacities to
establish, maintain and modify the relationships of any governance system. [Guillaume
1999].
The adaptive challenges of governance go far beyond technology per se. They call for
new organizational structures and skills, new forms of leadership, and perhaps even a
redefinition of purpose. They also call for a significant broadening
and transformation of
public-private sector partnerships (PPP) and the relational dynamics which underpin
them: the new dynamics are very far from traditional public sector processes for
procuring and contracting [Rosenau 2000]. Yet, while the potential for a recasting of both
public management and political accountability is real, the transition is fraught with
dynamic uncertainties.
The main thesis of this paper is that this necessary transformation in public sector
governance and accountability is likely to be blocked by an administrative culture that
may be ill suited for a digital world. Whereas nearly everything about the connected (or
digital) state requires horizontal governance, the Canadian government
has relied upon a
vertically based architecture of power and decision-making. While this quandary is
recognized to some degree, the central task facing both policy-makers and political
leaders, at least those interested in leading the transition to the digital age, lies in
orchestrating effective responses.
Governance is about effective coordination in a dynamic environment where both
knowledge and power are distributed. Every organization is built on governance, whether
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formal
or informal, ineffective or successful. The rise of
e-governance
refers to the new
patterns of decision-making, power sharing and coordination - made possible, or even
necessary by the advent of IT. In the private sector, for example, e-commerce is much
more than transactions online: it encapsulates the range of
new organizational models
built on technological architectures, such as the internet, that allow governance to be
redefined in new ways.
The public sector is not immune to such forces. Indeed, government finds itself under the
dual strain of becoming both a partner and de facto competitor with business in an online
environment, while also needing to understand the complex and profound implications of
new technologies and their impacts on public interest issues. As a result,
digital
government
(a term that we deploy in place of e-government) refers to an IT-led
reconfiguration of public sector governance – and how,
knowledge, power and purpose
are redistributed in light of new technological realities.
Digital government must also be viewed as much more than moving existing public
services online: it is about government harnessing IT to redefine its “social technologies”
in order to remain relevant in a more participative, more interactive and more
informational era [Tapscott and Agnew 1999]. Importantly, the OECD now reports IT is
becoming the critical agent of change, the availability of a new digital infrastructure and
the Internet's impacts on a changing set of public expectations are overtaking fiscal
pressures as the primary impetus for public sector managerial reform.
Nonetheless, the deployment of IT both in and across public
sector organizations is
driven by a variety of factors, and it may be resisted.
For reasons ranging from size,
scope and operational complexity, national governments may be particularly resistant to
cultivating the required shifts in skills, values and vision. Some commentators point to
the danger that in the absence of radical reform, national governments are likely to rely
on futile attempts to re-enforce traditional lines of power and authority.
A continuing
focus on hierarchically based leadership, partially contradicts the recognition of the need
for individuals with new combinations of leadership competencies and abilities
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associated with delivering in a web-enabled management framework. Yet, the shift
towards a new order of "e-governance" (penetrating political, commercial and social
spheres) accelerates, bringing at least the possibility of new governance capacities
emerging [Papows 1998].
What are governments doing and how are they coping? Section
two reviews the Canadian
government’s recent agenda to move online. Section three examines the new
collaborative arrangements that must arise if e-governance opportunities are to be met
successfully. Section four focuses on the new leadership and skill set challenges
generated by the digital transformation. Finally, section five looks at the most likely
scenarios for digital government in Canada.
